I was looking up at St Mary’s Church in the town of Nantwich, England, thinking how its sandstone structure must be difficult to maintain, when an elderly lady asked me if I was local.

Yes, I replied.

She called her husband and prompted to him to tell us his story about the Church. So, not begrudgingly, he told me, and expecting some factual information about the history of the building, I listened with interest. After some amount of back-story…

We came out of the pub, he said, and there was smoke rising at the back of the church… and it was in the shape of three angels!

I stared at him and it was obvious that he noticed my disappointment at the sheer inanity of his story.

You wanted to know that didn’t you, he said.

Yes, very interesting, I replied trying to be polite, and walked away.